Charter

A grant made by the sovereign, either to the whole people, or to a portion of them, securing to them the enjoyment of certain rights.

1 Story, Const. § 161; 1 Bl. Comm. 108.

Formerly included all deeds relating to hereditaments, especially deeds of feoffment (Co. Litt. 7a, 9b), but in this sense the term is now obsolete, and is now confined to grants by the government, the principal ones being grants of power to form corporations, either municipal or private.